I just went into the university my boyfriend said I should go to. We didn’t have as many words for liar or manipulator as we do now, so I had no arguments. It was an okay idea that played to some of my strengths, but didn’t work for me in the end: more fantasy than reality.

My preference was for a University of California campus, although I applied to a half dozen other schools. I would have gone to Harvard or Yale if I had been accepted, but I wasn’t.

I got in to UC Santa Barbara based on my SAT scores. It was my third choice as a UC school, but it turned out far better than I ever could have expected.

Cost. I actually turned down Harvard medical school to go to the University of California.

Ha! I was a good student at a stunningly high-rated private school, until my junior year, when my grandfather was dying slowly and painfully. My parents, (who already didn’t much like each other) were always at each others’ throats, and I just stopped caring, home life was so awful. All the four year schools I applied to (not even the great schools) rejected me, practically by return mail. My parents were horrified and livid, and I think they may have paid someone to let me in to a small women’s junior college in New England.

Being out of the house, I thrived, then went on to transfer to one of the schools that rejected me. It had a good Ed program, and I graduated well, with a good degree.

I grew up in LA Country and selected the California college that was the furthest away from LA. That college was Humboldt State University. I was majoring in Zoology and Humboldt at the time (1970’s) have a strong Biology department (Zoology, Botany, Forestry, Natural Resources). It was great fun while it lasted.

Didn’t I make that decision live on Fluther, many years ago? :P

I chose the college I went to (Stanford) because it was the best one I got into. Truthfully, I wanted to be further away from home, in a new city and new environment. Stanford, by contrast, was 15 minutes away from where I grew up. That priority was quickly overshadowed, however, and living in a dorm on campus away from my parents was enough of a novelty that I didn’t care that it wasn’t in a new place. I have no regrets. It was an excellent fit.

@Demosthenes I still like you even though you went to Stanfurd and have a stupid tree for a mascot. :-)

The prospectus was bigger (taller) than most other universities in the uk so it was the first one I picked up off the shelf in the library.

@Demosthenes Stanford woman won a great game last night. Go Cardinal!

@Caravanfan :D I love our quirky, stupid mascot. Lol.

It had to have excellent reputation, selective, competitive, with a great law school. It was five miles from my home. I was able to work during undergrad, which I did in three years taking all evening classes. My company paid my tuition. They say where there is a will there is a way.

How well it fit my desire
How accredited it was for my degree.
Cost
Location

BS was University of Minnesota
MS was Northeastern
Second BA in progress at Berklee School of Music

I started at the local community college because it was cheap, I could afford to go and still live on my own, and it was relatively close to home. BUT…I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for a major. So I joined the military and went to their nuclear power school and turned that into a career. Along the way, seeing office politics require some sort of degree to move up very far, I looked online and went to the college that would give me the most credits for my previous schooling and life experience. That led to a degree relatively quickly.

They gave me a full scholarship.

It was always assumed that I would attend the Boston-area college where my father and mother and grandfather taught, a few short blocks from my house, where I could go tuition-free. I wanted to be further away. My high school German teacher handed me a news clipping about a scholarship contest. I entered and became one of ten winners. So off I went to the unknown wilds of Iowa.

@Demosthenes, I remember that. What a drama! Glad you ended up in the right place.

@Demosthenes Oski vs The Tree
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYnAaSdLye4&ab_channel=SPORTSODYSSEY

This was about 33 years ago. At the time, I knew wanted to be a psychologist, and I knew didn’t want to go to an in-state school even though I knew I could get a free ride to both public and private colleges (my family was moving to another state anyway). I had some college reference book (might have been published by the ACT testing company), and in the book I identified highly selective schools with large social sciences programs. (As an aside, I just want to say that I was also maintaining on my bedroom floor a giant pile of recruitment mail.) From there I somehow whittled it down to 7 schools. I got into 6 and didn’t get into the 7th (labeled a Catholic school, which is relevant to the story) because in addition to the ACT/SAT, they required 3 Achievement Tests (I think that’s what they were called), and I didn’t bother taking the tests just to appease one school. I also got a couple of partial scholarships.

From there, my dad and I road tripped to 2 schools to tour, and I flew on my own to a third. I don’t remember the order of things but basically when word got out that I got into “Catholic Disneyland” family members started calling me and telling me that’s where I should go, and in the 11th hour my Dad said, “Don’t you want to go somewhere Catholic?”, and because I was an exceptional rule follower, that’s how the decision was made.

I had a “decent” job, at the time.
I stayed local, and attended college in the area.
If not for my job, I probably would have transfered credits to a better University for my last year or so. Likely I would have graduated too.

I guess the job was a bird, in the hand. I never got the one’s in the bush…

My university was the only one that had an admission average low enough for me to get into.

K State right after HS. Completed 2 years. My girlfriend and I chose it by driving out in the country and getting high and looking at brochures. We both liked purple so….
Then my folks divorced and. Mom moved to Seattle. Dad pulled the funding out from under me.
Didn’t get back until 1989. At this point I knew my marriage was failing and I had 3 kids.
I chose Kansas Newman. It was close to home. Most importantly they had a program geared for working adults. I supported the kids and me by running a daycare from home.
Classes were Monday, Wednesday evenings and Saturday. During the day.
I was able to sneak in volleyball 2 or 3 times a week too! Jaysus!
Graduated Magna Laude.

I did undergrad at UC Irvine because it was a UC that was away from home (San Diego) but not too far. That made it not particularly expensive to attend. It had Mech Engr courses that sounded interesting and were ABET certified.

I went to in-state universities because of cost and proximity to my employer who paid most of my tuition. It was a compromise for sure, but I have no regrets. I walked with no student loan debt.

When I went to school I was pursuing my teaching degree. There were two good colleges in my state for teachers and one was much closer to home. But my brother was living up near the other college and the church he was pastor at needed an organist so he persuaded me to come up there and live with him and his wife and be his organized why I went to school there. And I ended up loving my choice because it was up in the mountains and it was so beautiful up there! Plus it was a much smaller chool with cheaper tuition and just not as many people on campus so when I had to transfer two years later I was really sad.

I studied drafting at a vocational high school and wanted to be an architect. My next door neighbor was an architect who worked from home who suggested I go to the Boston Architectural College. On his advice, I applied and got in.

At the same time, I was interning at a large architectural firm in Boston and the guy I worked under talked me out of it because he was disappointed at the lack of creativity in architecture (over his 30 year career) and thought I’d hate that too. On his advice, I withdrew my application from the BAC and applied late to Massachusetts College of Art & Design. I got in and went there for a BFA in communication design and illustration.

I would have liked to have gone to RISD, but didn’t think I’d get in and couldn’t afford it anyway.

Years later, I found out I could have gone to MIT for free, as my mother worked there, but didn’t bother telling me. There’s no guarantee I would’ve gotten in anyway.